In memoriam - Highly Respected Professional Hunter Paddy Curtis gone, RIP

[rookhawk]

@AfricaHunting.com I’m not particularly amused by the obituary above. It is written in PH “bar-humor” style but paints a picture of a drunk, a person evicted from numerous countries, and someone with reckless disregard for the life of clients.

It would be a funny “yarn” when told amongst PHs and beers, but its not particularly funny as a lasting epitaph to a competent PH that didn’t make a hobby of killing his clients or taking reckless approaches on game. Might I request we purge this from the thread as it does nothing to honor the deceased nor does it do anything productive for the public perception of PHs, particularly one that had a favorable reputation such as Blood‘s.

 

[Hank2211]

@AfricaHunting.com I’m not particularly amused by the obituary above. It is written in PH “bar-humor” style but paints a picture of a drunk, a person evicted from numerous countries, and someone with reckless disregard for the life of clients.

It would be a funny “yarn” when told amongst PHs and beers, but its not particularly funny as a lasting epitaph to a competent PH that didn’t make a hobby of killing his clients or taking reckless approaches on game. Might I request we purge this from the thread as it does nothing to honor the deceased nor does it do anything productive for the public perception of PHs, particularly one that had a favorable reputation such as Blood‘s.

Funny how two people can read the same thing and come to completely different conclusions.

Personally, I'm tired of obituaries which paint the deceased as a model of perfection and nothing short of a candidate for sainthood. I don't actually know anyone like that, and I know I'm not like that, nor do I expect to be transformed into such a person were I to die.

I didn't get that he was reckless with game, nor that he made it a hobby to kill animals. I read that here was a human being who loved life and lived it in full color.

I leave it our moderators to decide if this should come down.

 

[redbarn]

That article on Blood was written in 2014 and was not meant to be an obituary,

“BloodNut” Curtis. – Africa Unauthorised

africaunauthorised.com

 

[rookhawk]

Funny how two people can read the same thing and come to completely different conclusions.

Personally, I'm tired of obituaries which paint the deceased as a model of perfection and nothing short of a candidate for sainthood. I don't actually know anyone like that, and I know I'm not like that, nor do I expect to be transformed into such a person were I to die.

I didn't get that he was reckless with game, nor that he made it a hobby to kill animals. I read that here was a human being who loved life and lived it in full color.

I leave it our moderators to decide if this should come down.

Pretty simple rules for life:

Is it helpful or beneficial? Is it true?

A.) It’s not helpful to the friends of the deceased nor the industry. B.) It’s true only so far as a great retelling of a bar tale in a way to give a friend a good ribbing by omitting certain facts and varnishing others for the sake of humor amongst closed-door friends in the back of a pub.

 

[Hank2211]

Pretty simple rules for life:

Is it helpful or beneficial? Is it true?

A.) It’s not helpful to the friends of the deceased nor the industry. B.) It’s true only so far as a great retelling of a bar tale in a way to give a friend a good ribbing by omitting certain facts and varnishing others for the sake of humor amongst closed-door friends in the back of a pub.

I think we have to agree to disagree on this one Rookhawk. I don't see it as hurtful or harmful, and personally, I see it as beneficial. Puts a human face to a tragedy.

But as I said, I leave up to the moderators to decide if they believe this is disrespectful. I don't think it is, and I can imagine Mr. Curtis looking down from heaven and having a good laugh at the retelling of some of his exploits.

 

[rookhawk]

I think we have to agree to disagree on this one Rookhawk. I don't see it as hurtful or harmful, and personally, I see it as beneficial. Puts a human face to a tragedy.

But as I said, I leave up to the moderators to decide if they believe this is disrespectful. I don't think it is, and I can imagine Mr. Curtis looking down from heaven and having a good laugh at the retelling of some of his exploits.

At one point in the article it defines someone perpetrating manslaughter: Being that someone identified to a PH that they had a weak heart and was not capable of high fitness hunting, that notice was disregarded by a PH who in turn imperiled a client by exerting him to the point of death. Then covered the corpse in branches and went drinking. @Hank2211 That’s not a funny thing to associate with the deceased. But I’ll refrain from further comment and just suggest we disagree on decorum between a highly sensationalized anecdote for the back of the bar versus an epitaph for someone recently deceased.

 

[BRICKBURN]

That article on Blood was written in 2014 and was not meant to be an obituary,

“BloodNut” Curtis. – Africa Unauthorised

africaunauthorised.com

Interesting source. Thanks for sharing.

Africa Unauthorized "About Us":
For a multitude of real and imagined reasons leading to extraordinary sensitivity, African reportage is invariably distorted or untruthful. As a result much of what should be known remains outside the public domain making it unlikely that the pressing problems afflicting the continent will ever be constructively addressed.

With this in mind a group of unlike minded, writers, philanthropists, engineers, hunters, guides, businessmen and unashamed Africanists decided to start “telling it like it is”. You may not agree or like what you see and read but we hope the discussions that follow will help us, together, get closer to the truth.

A mostly unmentioned casualty of our current culture of intolerance is humour and when people are forbidden to laugh they grow grumpy. We firmly believe that if enough people rediscovered the funny side of life the world would be a better place. But to do this, we all have to remember how to laugh at ourselves again. There is a soldier’s refrain; “Call me anything you like but for fucks sake don’t call me late for a piss-up!”

This is a rough idea where we are coming from; we hope you will learn from this but we also hope you will have a good chuckle!

 

[BRICKBURN]

@rookhawk I'd appreciate some other real tales of "Blood's" exploits that share your experience of the man. For that matter, anyone and everyone who knew him can join in.

 

[rookhawk]

@rookhawk I'd appreciate some other real tales of "Blood's" exploits that share your experience of the man. For that matter, anyone and everyone who knew him can join in.

A real “Blood” story?

Blood rolled into camp last year to check in on us and say hello because Zimbabwe is as close of a representation of Mayberry USA as anyplace on the planet.

He sat for a wonderful lunch with my ten year old son and had encouraging advice and thoughtfully discussed the love of hunting with a younger hunter. We had many good laughs and jokes. We spoke of leopard hunting since we were in without a doubt the highest quality location on the planet for leopard hunting. We chatted about some of the world record leopards Blood had taken over the decades in Castle Block, Steak Fountaine, and the rest of Mangwe district. We enjoyed a good meal, admired the photos on the walls of the camp of his client’s of yore with tremendous trophy leopard, and we talked about the future of his beloved Zimbabwe, conservation, and tourism.

Beer was enjoyed in moderation and he was caring for his ailing wife showing both love for a spouse and the pain that occurs as you watch your life’s partner‘s decline due to dementia.

My stories of Blood are not over the top as is the Anglo-Zimbabwean way of fanning stories of legend. He was a caring human with a lot of experience that endured the same pain as many of his fellow men. He served his country with honor and distinction and he had a list of happy clients and friends that was a hundred pages long. He was kind to me and my son and we shared that infectious Zimbabwean hospitality having mutual admiration for wildlife and the pleasures of hunting.

In addition to being a nice human, he knew how to find and hunt leopards of epic proportions.

 

[spike.t]

Well I reckon he would be finding these little tantrums pretty amusing...as it's said it isn't an obituary...it was written by hannes a while ago in...possibly in a book he wrote about some of the memorable people he knew...I remember the story about the client who unfortunately died from a heart attack....can't remember if it was Alistair who told me ( other ph involved)..or possibly both....but I cracked up laughing as well...as I said in my original post he had his ups and downs in being a ph....hannes flew up from Cape Town to be at his memorial the other day....different generation who lived through some harsh times and so their sense of humour was different....I was with him at sci just before he went to meet the family of the person killed by the buff...he was not looking forward to it ..but still was his usual go with the flow easy going being...from memory the family didn't blame him just wanted to talk about it....so yeah I said sort of in my post he lived life to the full...but growing up in rhodesia then and being in the selous scouts ...as I said a different outlook...so here is to people not getting their tight knickers in a twist....and just enjoy what a different life he lived and enjoyed to the most....

I also think Mike angiledes obituary gives a great breakdown...so as I said don't know what the issue is....

 

[Red Leg]

Interesting. I had only heard of the man from other PHs, one of whom served with him in the Rhodesian Light Infantry. Every tale was funny if not always charitable. However, I didn't have anything personal to contribute and had not returned to the thread until now. And somehow we have figured out how to get into a hissy fit over his death and its memorialization? The best I can tell, someone wrote a humorous, and largely true, tribute to him - one which those who knew him well find appropriate. I suppose I have been exposed to too many similar epitaphs in my career to find it anything but amusing. From what I know second hand of Blood, he would have raised a bottle and laughed - loudly. Thanks for posting @Hank2211

 

[Tommy112529]

“BLOOD” was an absolute BEAUTY, one hell of a hunter/PH and even a better man.
“Jack Le Fiet” my friend and until we meet again for another Final, Final….. Final, Final…. RIP my friend . Be sure and give Bobby a pinch of Copenhagen for me when you see him hahaha. The world has definitely lost a Legend, but Heaven has just inherited a new “Gate Keeper”.

 

[Gemsbok45]

Any updates here? Not expecting much from Zimbo police?

 

[spike.t]

Any updates here? Not expecting much from Zimbo police?

Unfortunately no arrests...investigations are still ongoing....spoke to Sean his son couple days ago and he had no updates....so

 

[Gemsbok45]

Thanks Mike!

 

[Rick HOlbert]

Well known and highly respected PH, Paddy Curtis, was murdered in his Bulawayo home in early morning darkness. Apparently, he opened his door to let his dogs out and robbers were waiting outside and ambushed him. He was able to send out an SOS for help, but they arrived too late. He was found near his still locked gun safe with 2 gunshot wounds to his head. A security team with dogs is presently hunting down the perps who murdered him.

Wherever in the world you may be, raise a toast at sunset to a great African man, PH & former Selous Scout. R.I.P. Bloodnut.

Another fine gentleman gone much too soon and will be sadly missed. My prayers and condolences to his family.

 

[Tokoloshe Safaris]

You are very wrong about the investigative skills of the Zimbabwe police.
I have reason to believe we will hear about developments very soon.

 

[Gemsbok45]

Great I want to be wrong!

 

[Traveler1]

Just ran across this post, reminiscing the old days with a buddy. I was fortunate to meet Bloodnuts in the early 80's will hunting in Zimbabwe. On one trip in Dec 86/87, Patty was in camp just hanging out while Ian Lennox and I hunted Leopard and Buffalo. There was a lot good times around the campfire and I know my father and Paddy put down some beers. Being about 14 at the time, you couldn't ask for a better Christmas.

 

[igotit]

My condolence to his family.